Innovation News

Tulsa is strengthening its position as a national hub for autonomous systems innovation.

Manna, a leading autonomous drone delivery company founded in Ireland, has selected Tulsa as the home of its first full-scale metropolitan U.S. operation and its central operational and manufacturing base, making the city the foundation for its nationwide expansion. The company expects to create more than 1,000 jobs in Tulsa over the next three years across flight operations, manufacturing, maintenance, commercial operations, and customer support.

Manna's decision reflects years of coordinated investment in Tulsa's autonomous systems ecosystem, including the Secure Autonomy Feedback and Evaluation Testbed (SAFE-T) project, the shared airspace infrastructure being developed to support safe commercial drone operations across the region.

Together, these milestones strengthen Tulsa's role as a leader in advanced air mobility, creating new opportunities for manufacturing, commercialization, and high-quality jobs while helping establish a model for safely scaling drone operations across American communities.

A proven operator with a global track record

Manna has completed nearly 380,000 autonomous drone deliveries worldwide, using a tether-based system that lowers packages to customers rather than landing. In Tulsa, the company plans to build its U.S. manufacturing base to power its entire American expansion.

Years of groundwork made Tulsa the choice

Building on more than $250 million in public and private funding, including federal Build Back Better Regional Challenge and Tech Hubs awards, Tulsa Innovation Labs and regional partners have spent years developing the infrastructure, workforce, and commercialization pathways that support the autonomous systems sector, including the drone industry.

Central to that effort is SAFE-T, an integrated system that combines advanced airspace surveillance sensors into a single data feed, supporting airspace tracking, traffic management, and weather monitoring for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations across the Tulsa metro. Tulsa Innovation Labs is working with federal partners to finalize the system, which is designed to bridge critical gaps in the current testing and regulatory landscape and to create a practical pathway for companies to safely demonstrate and scale commercial drone operations.

As Manna launches its U.S. operations and SAFE-T advances toward full deployment, Tulsa is attracting the next generation of aviation companies while building the infrastructure that will enable autonomous flight in communities nationwide.